1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus, particularly to an ink-jet recording apparatus for xe2x80x9cmargin-free recordingxe2x80x9d for printing on the peripheral area including the edge of a recording medium, the apparatus comprising a printing system provided with plural ink-ejecting devices and a controller for selecting a low-penetrable ink and a high-penetrable ink for the areas of the recording medium for image formation. The present invention also relates to an ink-jet recording method employing the ink-jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Background Arts
Known recording apparatuses having a function of a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, or the like, and known recording apparatuses employed as output devices of combined type electronic apparatuses including computers and word processors are constituted to form desired images on a recording medium in accordance with image information. The ink-jet recording apparatus is one of such recording apparatuses. The ink-jet recording apparatus conducts recording by ejecting an ink from a recording head onto a recording medium in accordance with image information. The ink-jet recording apparatus has advantages of compactness of the recording head, high speed of recording with high fineness of recorded images, needlessness of special treatment of printing paper, low running cost, low noise generation, ease of full color image recording with multiple color inks and so forth.
In recording with the aforementioned ink-jet recording apparatus, the image is not usually formed on the peripheral area of the recording medium. For example as shown in FIG. 7, the image is usually formed in the image formation area 50, but is not formed in the peripheral area 51 of the recording medium. Ink-jet recording has been widely popularized, and is employed in recording on various recording media for various purposes. Consequently, ink-jet recording is employed occasionally in xe2x80x9cmargin-free recordingxe2x80x9d which records images on a peripheral area of the recording medium including its edge.
In the margin-free recording by an ink-jet system with a liquid ink such as an aqueous dye ink or an aqueous pigment ink, the ink adhered to an ink-absorbing member provided on a platen is liable to stain the reverse face of the recording medium. Moreover, in the margin-free recording, the recording medium such as a paper sheet is liable to jam to cause sheet delivery failure. Therefore, various techniques are disclosed for practicing the margin-free recording. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-128964 discloses an ink-jet recording apparatus which comprises a guiding means and an ink-receiving means: the guiding means being provided inside the edges of the recording medium sheet so as to be movable in accordance with the size of the recording medium in the direction perpendicular to the recording medium delivery direction, and the ink-receiving means for receiving the ink from the recording head being provided adjacent to the guiding means outside the direction perpendicular to the recording medium delivery direction.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-227229 discloses a selective use of a pigment ink and a dye ink according to the type of the recording paper sheet and the type of the image to be recorded. In the known jet printing systems, the selective use of the inks according to the type of recording paper sheets and of the images is frequently employed in black color expression. In these systems, the recording is conducted by selecting a suitable ink for the recording medium and the type of image from among a low-penetrable pigment ink, a high-penetrable dye ink, and a so-called process black (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cPCBkxe2x80x9d). For example, for printing black letters on a plain paper sheet, a low-penetrable black pigment ink is selectively used, or a high-penetrable dye ink is firstly applied and thereon the low-penetrable black pigment ink is applied. For printing images of black letters on an ink-jet printing paper sheet, a high-penetrable dye ink is selected. For printing a landscape or a portrait other than letters, a black ink is used for UCR (under color removal) in a high-density portion, or a process black is used on a low-density non-colored portion in place of the black ink. However, these methods select the ink depending on the type of the recording paper sheet or the type of the image to be formed, but do not select the ink depending on the image formation area of a recording medium.
The inventors of the present invention made comprehensive investigation to solve the problems involved in the margin-free recording. Thereby, the inventors of the present invention found that occurrence of the staining on the reverse face of the recording medium and failure of delivery of the recording medium like paper sheets depend on the type of the ink used for the margin-free recording, and have completed the present invention. In recent years, inks employing a pigment as a coloring material (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cpigment inkxe2x80x9d) for ink-jet recording have been developed in addition to aqueous dye inks and are coming to be widely used to meet the demands for high water-resistance or high light-fastness in some uses. In particular, pigment inks are widely used for formation of black letters and images of high quality.
However, regarding the margin-free recording, according to the investigation by the inventors of the present invention, the staining or delivery failure of the recording medium depends on the properties of the ink as explained below. When a high-penetrable ink like a dye ink adheres onto an ink-absorbing member set on a platen, the dye ink can be absorbed by the ink not to cause the staining or delivery failure of the recording medium. On the contrary, when a low-penetrable ink adheres onto-the ink-absorbing member, the pigment tends to remain on the surface of the ink-absorbing member to cause the staining or delivery failure of the recording medium.
The present invention intends to provide an ink-jet recording apparatus which is capable of recording a satisfactory image even in margin-free recording in which recording is conducted in the peripheral area of the recording medium including the edge thereof, similarly as in usual image formation in which an image is not formed on the periphery portion of the recording medium. The present invention also intends to provide an ink-jet recording process by use of the above ink-jet recording apparatus.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet recording apparatus comprising a low-penetrable ink which tends to accumulate an ink component on an ink-absorbing member, and a high-penetrable ink which less tends to accumulate an ink component on the ink-absorbing member, wherein the ink-jet recording apparatus is so controlled, as to use only the high-penetrable ink therefor when forming an image even in a peripheral area of a recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink-jet recording apparatus comprising a low-penetrable ink which tends to accumulate an ink component on an ink-absorbing member, and a high-penetrable ink which less tends to accumulate an ink component on the ink-absorbing member, wherein the ink-jet recording apparatus is so controlled as to gradually decrease the amount of the low-penetrable ink to be applied and as to gradually increase the amount of the high-penetrable ink to be applied toward the edge of a recording medium when forming an image even in a peripheral area of a recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink-jet recording process comprising at least one of the steps of: (i) applying a low-penetrable ink which tends to accumulate an ink component on an ink-absorbing member; and (ii) applying a high-penetrable ink which less tends to accumulate an ink component on the ink-absorbing member, wherein an image is formed by controlling the process so as to use only the step (ii) when forming an image even in a peripheral area of a recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink-jet recording process comprising at least one of the steps of: (i) applying a low-penetrable ink which tends to accumulate an ink component on an ink-absorbing member; and (ii) applying a high-penetrable ink which less tends to accumulate an ink component on the ink-absorbing member, wherein an image is formed by controlling the step (i) so as to gradually decrease the amount of the low-penetrable ink to be applied and by controlling the step (ii) so as to gradually increase the amount of the high-penetrable ink to be applied toward the edge of a recording medium when forming the image even in a peripheral area of a recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an ink-jet recording apparatus for printing on a recording medium with an ink, or a reaction product of the ink and a liquid composition that reacts with the ink when coming into contact with the ink, comprising an ink, a liquid composition, an ink-jet head for ejecting the ink, and a means for applying the liquid composition onto the recording medium, wherein the apparatus further comprises a control means for printing only with the ink when forming an image on a peripheral area of the recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a process for forming an image on a recording medium with a reaction product of an ink and a liquid composition capable of reacting with the ink when coming into contact with the ink, comprising the steps of:
(i) applying the ink to the recording medium, and
(ii) applying the liquid composition to the recording medium,
the step (ii) being conducted so as to form at least the reaction product of the ink and the liquid composition on the recording medium,
wherein the process further comprises a controlling step to conduct printing by employing only the step (i) when forming the image even on a peripheral area of the recording medium including the edge thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a process for forming an image on a recording medium with a reaction product of an ink and a liquid composition that reacts with the ink when coming into contact with the ink, comprising steps of:
(i) applying the ink to the recording medium, and
(ii) applying a prescribed amount of the liquid composition to the recording medium,
the step (ii) being conducted so as to form at least the reaction product of the ink and the liquid composition on the recording medium,
wherein the process further comprises a controlling step to apply the liquid composition to a peripheral area of the recording medium including the edge thereof in step (ii) in an amount smaller than the prescribed amount when forming the image even on the peripheral area.